The things I get to do thanks to Ryanair.

Last week I went to London, this weekend I went to Barcelona. So what did I do in the interim you ask?

I studied. Up the wazoo. Out the wazoo? According to this guy it doesn't make a difference; they're both terrible. 
But seriously, it was the final week of Spooks and Spies which meant final paper, final exam, final readings, final eye-popping stress, etc. But it's over! It was actually a very interesting class. In fact I'm surprised by how much I was able to learn in just four weeks. Also, you should know that Jenessa and I are killer study partners. The exam will require us to choose two out of sixteen possible essay questions you say? Alright, we'll study the Cuban Missile Crisis and intelligence ethics. What's that? Those are both on the exam? Oh alright, we'll just kick that exam's trash. That was satisfying. Don't be fooled though. I knew the facts, but my essay construction was mildly terrible, so we'll see what happens.

Anyway, we had a long weekend between modules, so six of us decided to take off to Barcelona.
Travelers: Brooke, Chauntel, Giselle, Jenessa, Kelsey.

Here's a rough outline of what we did:

Friday, July 27

• Fly Ryanair
• I don't know any other way to describe this experience than to share this video:

• Arrive in Barcy, taxi to hostel.
• This hostel was awesome. So fun, so friendly, so helpful. If you're ever in Barcelona, stay at the Garden House Hostel. 
• Seafood paella.
• Some of the Ryanair ads told me that people go to Spain for the paella and stay for everything else. But they key there is that paella is good. So when we arrived at the hostel and they had some ready and waiting we all pitched in a euro and split a bowl. 
• One word: creatures. Second word: legs.
• Next word: delicious. 
• Shleep
• Sara... Shelley... I hope we're all reliving the same moment right now. 

Saturday, July 28

• Boy, this day was a blur. All I seem to remember is the heat. Hot, hot, heat. 
• But seriously, I remember things. Most importantly, it was Kelsey's birthday. Holla! The day began with birthday breakfast donuts. And birthday breakfast cough drops, because Kelsey and Brooke were sick.
• La Rambla
• Cool street. 
• Market
• Great fruit juice.
• Some scenic square that may or may not have been significant.
• Decent lunch
• Gelato
• Mango and Stracciatella. Delicious.
• Park
• Relaxing break from the sun. For the beauty of the earth.
• Child's birthday party. On a scale of one to fun, how much fun is it to watch foreign children at play in their native environment? So fun. 
• Arc de triomf
• Photo op
• Pier
• Beauty all around. There were all kinds of vendors and musical acts and pirate ships and things like that. I'm just kidding, there was only one pirate ship. There was a cruise a ship though. 
• More ice cream. This time it was Ben and Jerry's phish food, and I got it in a waffle cone. Yum.
• THIS:

SO FUN

Sunday, July 29

• Mercy mild this was a good day. Phillipe, one of the guys working at our hostel, recommended that we make the trek out to Ocata beach. Phillipe really came through for us. 
• We started out with some fruit from a little place right by our hostel. Jenessa and I had some sirius black good apples. 
• We ate a generally unsatisfactory lunch at a place on the beach, but that's ok, because we got ice cream... and we were at the beach. 
• Remember those perfect moments? Here's a few more.
• Chats/ walks on the beach with dear friends: priceless. 
• Chicken dinner at a different place on the beach. So delicious. Finally.
• Tomato bread. Yum.
• Don't worry, we got ice cream again.
• When we were leaving the beach we had to walk through this tunnel to cross the street. As we were walking through I noticed the acoustics in there were killer. Kelsey had her ukelele, so we all sang some hymns in the tunnel. It was a beautiful thing. 
• Bonding on trains/metros/busses/planes. This applies to all days. Public transportation makes the heart grow fonder. 
• High fives with Jenessa.
• Light fist bumps with Kelsey. 
• Ok, here's a good one. We got back to the hostel and desperately wanted some chips and salsa. Especially since vegetarian Giselle did not have a satisfying food day. So Giselle, Jenessa, and I went out in search of the goods. It was about a fifteen minute walk to the market. On the way back, as we were winding through the neighborhood, I realized I had no idea where I was, so I asked Jenessa, who was the world's best navigator on the trip. She had thrown away the map like two minutes prior. It was a hoot. We just had to walk a relatively circuitous route back to the hostel, but that was fun. So. 
• Ok, here's another good one. We were all splitting shampoo/ conditioner/ shower gel/ etc., so Jenessa and I had this really great system of throwing the stuff back and forth. (There were several shower stalls). That night though, Jenessa threw the shower gel to Giselle on the other side, unaware that there was an open window over there. It went sailing right on through. I can only hope that shower gel is still out there somewhere. It's kind of like we left our mark on Barcelona. 
• After showers we ate the chips and salsa and Kelsey gave everybody love fortunes. It's this great talent she has. You should get to know her and ask her about it some time. 
• That night Giselle prayed for us in Spanish. She's amazing. It was beautiful. 

Monday, July 30

• In the interest of time, this day basically consisted of shopping and travelling. It was relatively stressful, but here's a few great things that happened:
• In 6th grade, we went on a field trip to Point Bonita, where they taught us to eat the entire apple, top down. To this day, a lot of us still eat our apples like that. On this particular morning Jenessa gave it a shot. I'm pretty sure she loved it. 
• We ate lunch at another mediocre place. I got a hamburger, which I ordered with solely lettuce, tomato, and meat. It came smothered in mayonnaise. I wasn't going to say anything, but Giselle came through for me big time. That was a nice thing. 
• Bonding on the plane. Unfortunately, Kelsey and Brooke weren't able to sit near us, since Ryanair is the the spawn of satan (too much?), and made them check their bags, which took awhile. So Giselle, Jenessa, Chauntel, and I sat in the back of the plane. We bonded big time. We all some extra euros to spare, so picture this:
• Ryanair flight attendants: "Anything from the trolley dears?"
• "We'll take the lot!"
• It happened almost exactly like that. We bought so much chocolate, soda, and vegetable chips. Chauntel bought these starbursts that came with humorous tasks printed on the wrappers. She got one the told her to do five press-ups (that's British for push-ups) in the aisle, so she did. It was great.

Alright, I swear I'm coming to the end.

OVERALL

Barcelona is beautiful, but I think England is more my style. It may just be a little too laid back for my taste. The people are very friendly though. And we didn't get pick-pocketed, so that's a nice thing. 

Last night I was reading in Mosiah 18, and when I came across verse 8, it was one of those "aha" moments. Spending the weekend with these five wonderful people very much strengthened my testimony of "bear[ing] one another's burdens, that they may be light." The entire weekend was built on  lifting up, supporting, comforting, validating, edifying, encouraging, and bearing one another's burdens. Watching my friends lighten loads and lighten lives was such a blessing. They are wonderful. You should get to know them. 

Until next time.

P.S. In an effort to minimize losses in case of robbery, I did not bring my camera. Pictures to come later after I retrieve them from others. 

London Calling

See what I just did there?

Anyway.

You know how a lot of times I start out a post by apologizing for falling behind on blogging? It's kind of like, with each passing day that I don't post about something that happened, I feel this looming presence ticking off the days that I continue to drop the ball. Well, I found the source of my discomfort.

FACEBOOK. It's like living in a perpetual pressure cooker.

So here's what happened to me eleven days ago. Actually it was ten days ago. On Saturday July 21, I went to London for one of the official day trips put on by the program. I spent the day with Kelsey, Jenessa, and Taylor. We just hoofed it all over town and checked some sights off the list. What list? This list:

• British Museum
• Trafalgar Square
• Buckingham Palace
• Westminster Abbey
• Parliament/ Big Ben
• Globe Theater: Richard III
• Misery. All alone in the moonlight. 
• Walking all day + groundling/ peasant tickets (meaning two hours of standing) + my general indifference to Shakespeare => exiting the theater at intermission. I feel like I got as much of the experience as I needed to.

Perfect Moments

Do you ever have those perfect moments? When you are just at peace with everything and everybody and if time froze right then you'd be perfectly content? Well that happens pretty often around here, and I think two of them in particular are worth mentioning. 

Oh by the way, Jimi Hendrix used to shop here.

1) I grew up playing the piano and the trumpet, so band was a big part of my life for awhile. Concert band, marching band, jazz band, you name it. Some of my dearest friends were in band as well, and we all had about as much fun as any middle/ high school age kids can have. Hayley played the saxophone (several varieties), and Kelsey played percussion. And as much as I loved my trumpet, I was always a little jealous of Kelsey, and I have always entertained fantasies of being a drummer in a band. So when I was walking through London last Saturday and I passed by this great little music shop, I thought - how cool would it be to get a pair of drumsticks in London and finally pursue my dream of becoming a drummer? So I did. Hats off to Kelsey (trifecta Kelsey, not band Kelsey), for the encouragement. Since then I've been playing a little bit in one of the music practice rooms at King's College. It's bliss. 

2) After I got my souvenir, we went in to this little book shop where Kelsey found a hymnal from 1927. It had some really great stuff in it, so she bought it. Later, while at Green Park by Buckingham Palace, the four of us sat for awhile and read some of the verses from the hymnal. It was a nice time. You can read her blog if you want to taste some of those words. 

And if case you're feeling picture starved, here's a few to tide you over. 

Thizzin with Easter Island.

Channeling the gift of tongues with the Rosetta Stone.

That guy.

I was greeted by this sight after I left the Globe at intermission.
Obvs it was the right choice.

Onward and upward.

Even the birds are bumpin.

The weather is amazing.

I'm kind of kidding, it's not that great. But life is great. And every now and then we get some sunshine, and that's great.

So why is life so great? Because I get to do things like (1) go to the botanical gardens, (2) go on night runs, (3) have FHE in King's College Chapel, and (4) hold conspiracy theory parties.

From the beginning then.

(1) Yesterday (who here is impressed I didn't wait an entire week to write this?), Devon, Jenessa, and I went to the botanical gardens. It was sufficiently beautiful. Although there were a few too many dead roses. Fortunately, we had a noteworthy encounter with an Asian couple, that I cannot wait to tell you about.

As we were walking through the garden, we saw this Asian couple. Let's assume they were married to make the story easier to tell. So the husband is taking a picture of the wife, and Jenessa, being the humanitarian that she is, offers to take one of both of them. They readily accept, she takes the picture, everything is fine. Next, the wife seems to indicate she wants to take one for us. She sort of gestures at Jenessa, and pulls her over to a perfect backdrop. Only, before Devon and I get in the picture, we realize this lady is posing with Jenessa, and the husband starts snapping pics. Ok, that's weird. Will they take one of all three of us now? Nope, I'm next. Apparently the deal is "one by one, then all three." Devon takes her turn. Ok, finally, all three of us. But wait, why won't they take our camera? Wait, why is the wife in the picture with us? Why are we being photographed by this guy? I dunno, but it was a whole lotta fun.

Our new friends. So glad I captured this moment.

Had to navigate through that flora to get to that seat.

Jenessa, Devon, Me

We blend in.

(2) Night run 3.0! 

I cannot express to you how much I'm mclovin these night runs. First, let's talk about the fact that I can officially run miles. That is to say, I'm no longer limited to 100 meters... That's a great feeling. Second, I'm so thrilled by the company of our little running group. Third, I'd like to share with you a little miracle:

As we're coming up on the 3.5 mile mark, Jenessa accidentally drops her key card, and proceeds to kick it... to an unknown location... Fortunately, she noticed right away, but the thing about night runs is that you don't always have the best lighting for finding key cards. The worst part was that we were running next to a little creek, so there was definitely a concern that the card could have fallen in. We spread out and did a sweep of the area, but no dice. After a few minutes, Kelsey suggested we say a prayer, so we did. Did we find it? No. But I'll tell you what did happen. 

This car pulls up, and out comes this wonderful girl who saw us looking and thought she might be able to lend us a hand. Mind you, this was literally within the first minute of the conclusion of our prayer. And what does she do but spot it right off! "Oh, is this it?" she says. What a gem of a person. I mean, it's about 11:00 PM, so there are not a ton of cars driving by. Add to that the probability that any given car would pull over to help us, and it makes the whole thing even more miraculous. And she just finds it! What an absolute blessing. We also had the privilege to talk with her for a few minutes. She even taught us some Tai Chi. I hope to high heaven we get to see her again. She was great. 

I have been fortunate enough to feel the very real power of prayer many times in my life. And what a blessing it is! To be able to have a direct line of communication with my Father in Heaven strikes me as one of the most incredible tender mercies available to me. Through prayer I have had the opportunity to develop a very real relationship with Him, and to gain an understanding of Heavenly Father's plan for me and His awareness of me. Whether it's helping me find something that I've lost, helping me with my homework, or giving me strength through a trial, Heavenly Father has always been there for me. I am so grateful for this privilege and blessing. 

(3) FHE at King's College Chapel

As a reminder, this is what the chapel looks like:

I took this off the Internet... can you tell?

Ditto.

Also, this is where Evensong takes place, featuring the world renowned King's College Choir. So take a minute to digest what the acoustics must be like in this place. Yes, it's as good as you are imagining it to be. Now picture this.... hymns, in the chapel. Several beautiful hymns. It is a powerful thing to hear voices lifted in song, sharing their mutual testimonies of Christ and His Gospel. Next, picture this... a testimony meeting, in the chapel. And make sure you are picturing a testimony meeting with 45 of the best people you have ever met, who each have a unique contribution to make to the spirit of the meeting. To be clear, not everybody was able to stand and bear their testimony, but the power of the Spirit emanating from each individual in that Chapel was powerful, and it was beautiful. 

So you may be asking yourselves how we were able to hold our Family Home Evening in a Church of England Chapel. Dr. Kerry (our program director), said it best. It all comes down to love. We were blessed to be able to share our testimonies in a beautiful place of worship because the Chaplain chose to go out of his way to extend an offering of love and fellowship. And for that I am very grateful.

(4) The natural course of action after this spiritual experience was to go back to Market Hostel to discuss conspiracy theories. We managed to draw a substantial crowd under the guise of root beer floats. But apparently England isn't on that bandwagon. They don't sell root beer (what?). Yeah, that's a weird thing. So we had Dr. Pepper, Coke, and Fanta floats. The Fanta was un. believable. It tasted like a dreamsicle. Or a creamsicle, depending on how you want to look at it. 

Anyway the crowd petered out relatively quickly, which left a few of us to dig in to those conspiracy theories. The consensus (used in its loosest form), is that Tupac isn't dead, there were no airplanes on 9/11, just missiles, the government ran a mind-control program in the 1960's called mk-ultra, and there were no missiles during the cuban missile crisis. The hook: they used the missing cuban missiles during 9/11, and managed to brainwash the entire city of New York (in an effort to make them believe they saw airplanes) using mk-ultra. And Tupac is hanging out in Cuba. So. 

That's all for tonight. Catch ya on the flip-side. 

ULTRA cool field trip!

Honk if you love field trips! I know I do. So. Good thing we got to go on one.

On Sunday we took a trip out to Bletchley Park, and on the way we stopped at the American World War II Cemetery at Madingley. It was so reverent and pristine. The sacrifice of those young men is staggering. The cemetery contains the remains of 3,812 soldiers, along with the names of 5,127 of the missing. It was a very powerful experience.

Thumbs up for photo placement! 

Crud, I can't get it right. It's fine.


After about an hour we left Madingley and headed to Bletchley Park. 10 points to Gryffindor for anybody who knows what they did at Bletchley. Don't worry I didn't know before I took this class. Here's the skinny:

Bletchley Park was the top-secret location of the top-secret code and cypher school where they worked on the top-secret decryption project called "ULTRA" (I bet you understand the title now), which decrypted codes from Germany's top-secret Enigma machine.

The Germans thought the Enigma was impossible to crack, but thanks to some fortuitous U-boat captures, Hitler's arrogance, and, of course, Poland, the Brits were able to crack the codes and read the German's mail for the rest of the war. It's pretty cool.

So Bletchley is where they stuck the boffins from Cambridge and Oxford. These guys were the best and the brightest. Harry Hinsley, Tommy Flowers, Max Newman, Alan Turing. If not for them, we'd all be speaking German right now. And I'd have a brother named Fritz. Also, I wouldn't be writing this, because they kind of invented computers.

You may be asking yourself how they chose Bletchley Park. Or you may be waiting to see pictures. If it's the latter, feel free to skip this paragraph. Otherwise, stick around.
The best part about Bletchley is its location. 60 miles north of London (out of range of prime bombing targets), and halfway between Oxford and Cambridge. All kinds of young minds ripe for the picking. So they decided they needed to get a feel for the pace, so they sent a load of officers undercover as servants at an artificially contrived social weekend. They liked it, so they took it.The place was built by some 19th century "new money" individuals with poor taste. It's kind a hodge podge of architectural design. And here it is, for your viewing pleasure:

Dr. Martland. Sometimes he reps the ivies. 

The COLOSSUS. Pretty sure I could build that.

Killer propaganda. 

That's definitely a real gun.

High-fives all around.

In all its glory.

Ohp, here's another cool story.

How secret was Bletchley?

Bletchley was so secret (yo mamma so secret), that a husband and wife that worked there didn't know the other worked there until after the war. 

Also, the secret wasn't released until the 1970's, because they used it through the Cold War. Neat huh?

Finally, I want you to know what I woke up to on Sunday morning.

Beautiful, no?

Keeping up with the Joneses.

Warning: I've contracted misleading title disease. I'm not trying to keep up with an elusive ideal of perfection, I'm just trying to keep up with this blog. Sorry for my shortcomings. Fortunately, Facebook is bridging the gap between social networking and social archiving, so I was able to reconstruct a tentative timeline of my last week (timeline... facebook... see what I just did there?), based on my online interactions.

Monday & Tuesday, July 9 & 10


I can only assume (and hope) I was studying on these days, trying to get back in the swing of things after Edinburgh. Apparently sub-standard memory isn't a deterrent to the Cambridge admission team.

Wednesday, July 11


The trifecta celebrates its one-week anniversary.
**Note: Do not try Wispa Gold McFlurry, it's not worth it.
Some things just taste weird in England.
****More important note: On the whole, I've been getting on with English fare just famously. You may or may not think of me as a relatively (relative to what?) picky eater. I steer clear of all things cheesy, creamy, or of otherwise unappetizing consistencies. In America, this haunts me. In England, I've never been happier. The English don't seem to care a great deal about sauces/ condiments/ things I don't like. So I'm in a pretty consistent state of contentment.

Plenary lecture by Dr. Jonathan Steinberg on "Why Cambridge is Unique."
You're probably asking yourself that very question right now. So here's a few answers:
-College system (31 in total - I'm in King's)
-Tradition of mathematics (this is more unique in contrast to Oxford)
-No University governing body

Jordan turns 21.
Obviously we went to the pub. Obviously we sang "For he's a jolly good fellow."

Black Currant Lemonade. You should try it sometime.

Harry Potter Studio Tour booked.

August 9. We are going.

Night run.

A lot of things are better at night. Running is one of them. The run was initially going to be a short little guy. It also didn't initially include any guys... Fortunately, Kelsey and I ran in to Carson and Josh before we took off, so the four of us ended up running for about an hour. It was nice. There's a 98% chance we're going again tonight. 

Thursday, July 12

I spent the majority of the day working on my mid term paper for Spooks and Spies. 1500 words on whether signals intelligence shortened World War II. Considering it's not graded, it's just a practice run for our real term paper, I fear I spent far too much time on it. It was interesting though. 

On a side note, if you'd like an indication of what a typical spooks and spies lecture is like, check out Averill's blog. I laughed out loud. 

That night I skyped my mom for like 2.5 hours. That's the best. Among other things, we talked about what I would do if I didn't get in to the Information Systems program. 

Later that night I found out I got in to the Information Systems program. So that was fortuitous. I'm actually really excited about that. So excited to experience life. 

Friday, July 13

Once again, the better part of my morning and afternoon were spent working on that paper. 

Fortunately, I finished. Then we went to dinner at a little gem called Wagamama. Talk about tasty teriyaki (3 points). After we ate, we decided to walk around. 

And then...

Who here is excited that I got that video to start right where I wanted it? 

We got caught in the ran. Sans umbrella. It was the MOST fun. I mean, we were 0.7 miles away from our respective rooms, so the only thing to do was embrace it. And embrace it we did. There's this little hill, "Castle Hill," which is the highest natural point in Cambridge. For obvious reasons, this landmark proved irresistible to us that night. 

During.

After.

Finally, we come to the prank. Shelley, an old roommate, has this tradition of pranking me every Friday the 13th. Usually she does this:

But this time she did this:

I apologize to any of you who were adversely affected by Shelley's antics. That said, hats off to Shelley for ingenuity. 

The trifecta finished off the night in grand fashion with a quasi sleepover. Holla for going to bed at 4 AM. And for a dolla. 

Saturday, July 14

The day after a sleepover is always weird. Always. I just feel like I'm not firing on all cylinders. A few of us went to this terrible place called Fitzbillies where they make terrible soup and terrible salad and give you terrible water. But apparently they have good fruit tarts. They need to sort of their priorities. 

Next we went to the Fitzwilliam museum. They had some nice items. Of particular interest was the impressionism room. Always. 

Mostly we just liked this giant picture frame out front. Unfortunately the camera balanced on a rock and set on timer wasn't sufficient to capture the frame to its full potential, but now that I told you what we were going for, I can only hope you'll be able to see it. 

Corey, Me, Jenessa, Jordan, Kelsey

After the muze-am I got to skype with these perfect people:

On a scale of 1 to good, it was soooo good. 

Then Jenessa and I went on a night run, because night runs are the best. And what a treat to be running around Cambridge.

Alright, remind me not to wait so long to update this guy.

10-4 good buddies. 

We had a choice, we chose rejoice.

There's a little catch phrase that's been floating around our circles: "this is the yes trip."
The premise: when in doubt, just say yes (this has a few limitations for BYU students).
The modified premise: if a wholesome opportunity presents itself, embrace it.

I tend to say no 66% of the time. Ward functions? No thanks, I'd rather study. You're gonna go hit the non-alcholic bar? Sorry, it's past my bed time. Game night? Nah girl I'm in for the night. Shout out to K Bear. So this little "yes trip" mantra has been just the ticket.

Night run? yes. Hike to the top of the mountain? yes. Dessert? Duh. Devotional? yes. That was harder than it should have been.


I am living life with no regrets. You should try it sometime. It's incredibly freeing.

Disclaimer: I reserve the right to say no.


Ok, I'm willing to bet you want to hear about my trip to Edinburgh (Ed-in-bur-uh), Scotland (Scot-land), so here's the skinny:

Thursday, July 5


Departure: 8:30 in the AM
Commence 2 hour segments on bus, broken up by various rest stops and castles, proceed to travel for a total of approx. 10 hours.

More about that castle: We stopped in a quaint little town called Richmond, which is fortunate enough to house a nice little castle. Obvs we explored it.

Annie, Molly (bus buddies for life), me

From the tower.

This tower. 

Several hours later we got settled in the University of Edinburgh dorms. Dr. Kerry, our BYU program director, successfully secured an entire floor in an entirely separate building exclusively for the LDS girls. It was the best thing ever. So fun being on the same floor with errybody. After a 5 star comped meal from the caf a few of us ventured out in to the city, where we stumbled upon this little gem:

Lichrally, the BEST park I have ever been to. It was so unconventional.

Then we saw Edinburgh at night. Takin' out the trash... at niiight. It was so mist....erious... see what I just did there? Then I came across this place:

Not even a big fan, but still kind of cool.

Friday, July 6

We went for a little hike in the highlands, during which I put my lungs through the ringer and then soaked up some seriously aesthetically pleasing views of the town (Killin) and the lake.

But wait, you need to know about Satan's sandwich. We stopped in town before we reached the trail head to get some lunch. So we went in to this little place that sold sandwiches. If you're reading this blog, you probably know me... so you probably know how picky I am. I exercise a blanket moratorium on cheese and almost all things creamy. So when the lady at the store told me that the ham sandwich was just ham and margarine, I promptly asked her sub the margarine for some mustard. Jenessa tried to warn me about the European mustard, bless her heart, but it was too late. So we got on the bus, and I decided I would take a bite of the sandwich...... I almost had a heart attack. It was quite possibly the vilest thing I have ever put in my mouth. Apparently it was laced with horse radish and dark magic. It almost killed me. 

So naturally we passed it around for everyone to try. 

That's her apprehensive face.

On the bright side, I didn't have to bother with carrying the sandwich up the mountain.

Also on the bright side, we had some really perfect weather. Behold these views:

Go Jenessa.

Power animals. I dare you to try to portray a gazelle in a photograph. 

That night we had a traditional Scottish Ceilidh (kay-lee), which is essentially line Scottish line dancing. Depending on the dance, you might be dancing with a group of 2,4,6, or 8. I appreciate it. I mean I'm a really horrendous dancer, but having a set of prescribed moves definitely makes things easier. 

Saturday, July 7

Rain.

Elephant house, where JK penned some of her best work. 

Rain.

Edinburgh castle.

Rain. 

Tom Riddle's grave.

Rain.

Taxi home due to rain.

Great day.

Pics:

It's kind of like I'm wearing that scarf.

Sunday, July 8

Departure: 9:00 in the AM

New lunch stop: Fountain's Abbey

This place was the MOST serene, beautiful, perfect, ruinous abbey I have ever had the pleasure to encounter. There were so many families there for a Sunday afternoon outing. It was perfect. Mark my words, I will take my family there for a Sunday outing some day. 

And now I'm back in Cambridge, and it feels pretty good. 

Over and out.